Visit to Bangladesh

Not many tourists

Here is Nikki, a fellow BanglaDEEPer.
We didn't see many other tourists in Bangladesh. And judging by the friendliness and curosity of Bangladeshi's, neither had they. We did see a few foreigners who were there for work or study, mainly around the suburb we stay in Dhaka that contained the embassies (Gulshan). Three of us managed to visit the Australia club next to the Australian embassy. Inside a high brick wall there was a nice pool and a bar - a unique site in Bangladesh in which pubs/alcohol is illegal. It was quite a nice area but it the contrast to outside it's walls was a little unsettling.

Fried dal

Here I am, buying some fried dal in little packets. This small grocery shop was started by a member of a savings group who was able to take out a loan from the group to start this business (unless it was the shop next door, i wasn't entirely clear on that). See the previous post for a rough explanation of the "savings group" format. There are womens and mens savings group, although the large majority are womens group. Members of the group receive education sessions and can also link in with other training (e.g. agricultural, health-related), ie. is not all about saving money but that is just one aspect (and they are not always called savings groups, it depends on the organisation who organises them). The criteria to join such a group (for at least one of the organisations who worked in this way) includes being landless and illiterate. To get the small amount of money to be able to deposit into the savings, one group member said they sell a few home grown vegetables and another said that they reserved a handful of rice each day and then after a while they had enough to sell at the local market.
The fried dal in the little packets was quite tasty and crunchy, i think they are lentils which have been deep fried with some spicy flavour put on. I still have some packets that i've been saving for Bangladesh Night 2 that is still yet to happen 7 months later!

Education for a womens group in Mymensingh (north in Bangladesh). Describing how to ensure safe water is used and rehydration in the case of diarrhoea. The facilitator of the group works for Symbiosis an Australian organisation which is staffed by Bangladeshi's and about to become nationalised to Bangladesh. Symbiosis is a partly supported by TEAR Australia. January 2005

Womens group in Mymensingh

These women and children live in Mymensingh a small-ish city in the north of Bangladesh. The women are part of a savings group who meet and save small amounts of money and then they take a loan out of the group savings to start small business to generate income for basic needs. When they meet they also recieve education about topics relevant to them for example what to do when a child suffers from diarrhoea and dehydration (a life-threathening event for their child).